EA Boss Brands Battlefield 4 Launch 'Unacceptable'

EA boss Andrew Wilson has branded the troubled launch of Battlefield 4 as "unacceptable" while also stressing developer DICE has learned a valuable lesson so it shouldn't happen again.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Wilson explained why the issue came about and pinned the blame on the ambition originally displayed by the studio.

"Think about what Battlefield 4 was: 64 player multiplayer, giant maps, 1080p, Levolution that was changing the gameplay design in an emergent way," he explained. "There is a chance there are things you are going to miss through the development cycle. And you end up in a situation we had with Battlefield 4.

"For me, the situation we had was unacceptable. For the team it was unacceptable. We have worked tirelessly since then to make sure the gameplay experience got to where it absolutely should have been at launch and we're focused on that and we continue to deliver value to that player base.

"But when you do things like that you can never guarantee. It would be disingenuous for me to sit here and say, 'we will never have an issue again,' because that would mean we were never going to push the boundaries again. And I don't want to be that company. I want to be a company that pushes to lead and innovate and be creative. But you can start to do things that give you a better handle and a better view about what the potential challenges might be."

The answer, according to him, is to lengthen development cycles to give teams time to properly test the game with earlier betas. An accusation leveled at EA is that the company rushed production on the title to hit the next-gen console launches, something Wilson vehemently denied. He also promised the upcoming Battlefield Hardline has had three years of development, so the publisher is feeling much more confident. Battlefield 4 is much more stable and Hardline is being rigorously tested in a bid to stop history repeating itself.

For developer DICE, however, the most upsetting thing is the black spot Battlefield 4 seems to leave on its otherwise gleaming record. Despite halting production on all other projects to try and fix the shooter, studio chief Karl-Magnus Troedsson acknowledged the events have changed the developer, hopefully for the better.

"People in the studio have taken this very personally," he admitted. "It has led to some very tough discussions about what we're doing. We're looking forward, we're not looking backward any more, and saying, 'okay, what do we take out of this hardening experience and what does that mean for us moving forward?' We'll talk more about that in the future but there is definitely a lot of lessons learned."

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.